Here is the Church

"Oh, she's a work in progress..."
"God isn't finished with me yet..."
How often have we used familiar words so casually?  They're true enough, but what are we really thinking?

Building evokes grand plans for the future, and God uses them as images for lives of faith intentionally. Putting brick on brick brings hope.  Nailing together fresh 2x4's reminds us that we believe both in beginnings and in completions.  


You will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.--Isaiah 60:18

Yes, God builds in us something corporeal and firm, something that He expects to stand forever.  We are His temple, and He says we are to be known as Salvation and Praise.  We do not stand as just any common building.  We rise forth as His temple.

You, also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.--1 Peter 2:4-5

God provides both the blueprint and the building materials: faith, love, forgiveness, redemption...all of it.  He places his wood and brick in us one on another over the foundation of His Son and He expects us to stand.

Remember what goes on in a temple:  repentance, restoration, prayer, praise, sacrifice.  This is what is supposed to go on in us.

Remember that childhood game..."Here's the church, here's the steeple..."?  You and I are the church that stands as God's landmark.  You and I are the steeple that calls people to prayer and worship.  You and I welcome the people that throng to our gates. 

God builds on us through His own perfect will and for His own glory.  Unlock the doors, fling them open.  God lives in us.  Work in progress, indeed.